Options After Motion to Vacate Judgment is Denied

[lawlessland]

My question involves judgment recovery in the State of: Hi

They are in default of contract cause me thousands' of damages. However, they turned around to sue me for outrageous amount, making all kinds of accusations and lying through out, without a shred of evidence and legal grounds/elements. They probably spent 10-20 times the money they asked for me initially to harass the heck out of me for years. They have lots of $$$ (of course, not their own, but the public's, believe me, no normal family can or would spend that kind of money) and best legal presentations possible which I have none. I was denied of any useful discovery answers, denied of trial I paid for and denied of judgement of my claims. basically, all their motions granted, almost all mine denied. They had all my evidence and documents early on, I had none of their record nor documents, nor any chance to question any of their accusation and claims.

They faked a different court order of summary judgement, waited 2 years, had a hearing behind my hack with the judge and got the order to pay their legal fees. They didn't give me a copy of their filed documents. Needless to say, I didn't get the notice and didn't show up for the hearing. They did send me the order to pay their fees though. So I filed motion to vacate. My grounds are 1) all party (ies) has to be given a copy of everything filed; 2) good cause - based on the merit of the case; mistakes, inadvertence; excusable neglect; newly discovered evidence; fraud, etc. and I made clear I'd further get into more defense after they forward the document so I can look into their argument

I am surprised, for >1.5 month before the motion set aside hearing after I mentioned that I didn't have their document, they never bother to do anything, instead, they filed opposition <8 days required by the rules and procedures. They claimed that they properly served me, again, no evidence, and also said that I faced a sanction (?? for what? aren't they the one who should face sanction? I remember their threatening before, that they could have the gov to confiscate my property if I didn't do whatever they wanted) I contacted them and court for the doc before hearing, to no avail. I was thinking they had to give me the documents when I asked that again in the hearing and I would then address everything once for all, including asking my legal costs. After all, they breached the contract, they filed the baseless sue, I had to spent double the fees to buy tons of the useless reports and record just to shut them up every time they lied the court took their side giving me warning.

To my astonishment, it was not happening. The judge pretty much acted like their spokesperson or legal counsel questioning me as hostile witness. And said that the court is not there to answer my questions when I questioned why the judge said this is not a default judgement and why judge said the other party win. (so now the judge decided to change the order made before?) Judge denied my motion to vacate, didn't cite any rules and law that's backing the decision/order to deny.

The whole thing is so biased and unfair to me. what do I need to do now? Do I have a good case for appeal? Any advice for appealing? Or there are some other moves I need to make? Thanks a lot for helping.

[aardvarc]

The best advice anyone can give you now is the same exact advice that would have been given at the beginning: you are no match against an experienced attorney in the courtroom, and unless you want to continue to be chewed up and spit out because you're not fully understanding the procedural mistakes you've already made, you NEED to retain an attorney of your own. This is NOT going to be a do it yourself project that will work out in your favor, and, if you wait too long to retain a professional to appeal the court's decision, you'll forever loose the ability - so beg, borrow, or whatever you have to do - but you NEED an attorney.

[lawlessland]

Thank you for your advice, aardvarc. Indeed, it's been very difficult. Yep, been chewed up and spit out. But how did that is because I am not fully understanding the procedural mistakes I've already made rather than corruption? What procedural mistakes you are talking about? I think I pretty much walk on egg shell, checking and double checking, following all time lines and procedures, following the law and rules, attacking all their false elements to their claims and provide all my evidence, which fully support my major claims except 2 wrong claims at the beginning due to misunderstanding of the terms, and they were nothing to do with what happened, but all their claims' false, and intentionally. And how does lying, cheating and fraud = experienced? Like being raped you are at fault because the rapist is a good experienced one. Whoever got the money and power gets to bully and torture the common individual freely. How do you like to live in a society like such? Not to mention the gross negligence +the shocking way they squander the tax money freely at their whim. And part of the money they use to bully you is from you. You are very right, 30 day deadline for appeal, even more, way more technical. I don't know. Even if you have $50k-$100k to shell out at the beginning, you might still lose, not guaranty right? I am sure you will suffer way less emotionally if you have a lawyer.

any public media, agencies to complain? I wonder anybody have any idea

[aaron]

Save the melodrama.

We weren't there, so we can't assess the merits of the case you presented or any procedural mistakes you may have committed.

You can discuss your present options with a lawyer, who can review the case history and what you've done so far. You can discuss the nature of the judgment and your options with a bankruptcy lawyer, if you prefer that route, to assess your qualification for bankruptcy and the dischargeability of the debt. You can explore the option of appeal, but for that you would again benefit from having a lawyer review the case history and record - appeals can be highly technical.

[lawlessland]

Thank you aaron. Melodrama? You are right, you were not there. They haven't haggled you for the whole day specifically on your special day like you just commit a murder, ponding you the same question 10 times until you gave the answer they wanted, about all your assets, your debt, where you reside who you are with when you'd be alone....; one minute they coax you to give them the contract, next minute they tell the court that you intentionally mislead them and guaranty something I don't even know..... it's only a very small exemple of what they did. Probably at least $50-60k is throwing in to harass me if not $100k, another $20k due to negligence which's totally avoidable simply if they know the ABC of their job or simply tell me the truth then I'd take care of it. I'd like and trust a bank robber more. At least the latter had the conscience to know he'd doing something wrong.

Contract's straightforward Black and white. Not complicated at all. I deliver they didn't. If you can read, you can make a decision easily in 15 minutes. However, the court doesn't mind to entertain their theories not written on the contract. what can you do? They'd already decide not to allow me to win. aardvarc's dead right about that. Did checked 2 lawyers, they charge me for consultation they used the time to scare me about the case asking for $50k. I think they prepare for a few month's work. I don't think they'd do $50k for a few years, no way. For the appeal, my concern is naturally the technical, and more critically, if the other court is equally corrupted as the trial court. You are just an outsider. I think at this point we both are quite burned out. They expect I hand in the money soon after the complaint didn't expect I am that tough. Thank you very much. I'd better get organized.

[Mr. Knowitall]

You defaulted, so the contract is presently irrelevant. You cannot dispute the merits of the plaintiff's action unless and until the default is set aside.

You chose not to hire a lawyer at some point, whether that was before or after you defaulted we cannot know. If you knew of the lawsuit and chose not to be represented prior to default, that is going to factor into the judge's evalation as to whether you have good cause for your failure to file a timely response to the lawsuit.

Your options remain as described: Have a civil litigation attorney review the full facts and case history to try to fix the result that followed from your bringing (and losing) your own motion, and to advise you on the merits of an appeal, or consult a bankruptcy lawyer about whether you can partially or fully discharge the judgment through bankruptcy.

[lawlessland]

Thank you very much for you advice, Mr. Knowitall. Thank you all. I'd keep all your advices in mind. trying my luck to see if I can pay for legal service like review or consultation, or other alternatives.

Ok. Oh, well. Is this considered default? I was told it was not default. I don't know. She denied, with a straight face before, something indisputably written on the court guideline.

The case started 4 years ago, I went through the whole 9 yard, of all the pretrial procedures before the summary judgement when the judge made a ruling 2 years ago. She basically kicked us all out to another court. well, 2 years ago, INSIDE the court room she only address to the order side's claim, and made no judgement on mine. (However, the minute said she dismissed my claims. huh? nothing really match of what's said in the court room,and court minutes and court order made by the other side's attorney.) Nothing happened since then. I thought that was it. But 2 years later now, the other side all of a sudden filed judgement for money, and had the hearing behind my back.

I didn't show up in court nor did I get a chance to examine their arguments, because they didn't give me a copy of their filed documents and hearing notice with the court. I had no idea they filed anything or there was a court hearing at all until they gave me the order. I eventually had to go to buy all the copies they file with the court since the judge didn't want to hear that I need to know their arguments in order for me to have something to say. I am afraid that the judge is going to be upset if I try to fix the result. The result has already been "fixed", and you are going to tell to her face 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... why this is not done right according to the rules and procedures, again? I just have a strong feeling that she doesn't want to hear anything any more. Could she throw me to jail on court contempt if I do? I don't know any more. Who knows what they feel like to do.

[cmre3456]

You have been given some really good advice. Please listen to it. Please understand that there is a huge difference between what "seems right" and what the law is, most particularly the rules of civil procedure in your state.

A judge is not allowed to show favoritism by acting as your attorney. She can't give you legal advice or stop you from making mistakes. She can rule only on what's in front of her, and she doesn't owe you an explanation. An attorney would know the explanation.

You simply have to separate what "seems fair" from what the laws are which guide the court. You have been way over your head for some time now. You mentioned being badgered for hours with repetitive questions, and also not being given evidence you asked for. An attorney would have known how to stop that, and with a great deal of power. In fact it probably wouldn't have happened if the other side knew they were dealing with an attorney who could properly object to it, make lawful demands, and could get them sanctioned by the court for it. An attorney might even have had you walk out of that questioning (deposition?) and then filed for sanctions against the other party.

Most of your writing is emotional, and about what "seems fair." It has very little to do with the laws of civil procedure causing me to suspect you don't know them. The two options you've been given of hiring an attorney to review and perhaps appeal, or talking to a bankruptcy attorney are all I see for you.

Remember that an appeal can be only about how the judge ruled under the law. If you failed to follow the proper procedures and the judge ruled properly based on that, you have no grounds for appeal.

Good luck.

[flyingron]

And frankly, you usually only get ONE SHOT at an appeal so it behooves you to do it right (i.e., get a lawyer). You can't appeal your appellate loss on the basis that you did it wrong the first time.

[cmre3456]

Also, in my experience an appeal to the appellate court could cost somewhere in the $10k - $30k range depending on the complexity. You can't trust the appellate court to give you a correct ruling either. Sometimes I seriously wonder if some members of the court went to law school with some members of the opposing law firm or something. I've seen some lousy rulings given without any real thought of the law at all. I will go to my grave agonizing over one which was outrageous.

Even if you won an appeal, that would just give you a right to continue with your case. You wouldn't be finished necessarily, depending on the ruling. In layman's terms, the court might just rule that the whole thing must start over fresh. Now you have another ton of attorney's fees and court costs.

Good luck.